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Screenwriter Joseph Stefano Dead at 84
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" Screenwriter Joseph Stefano has died at the age of 84. Stefano is survived by his wife of 52 years, Marilyn, and his son, Dominic. Stefano wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller, Psycho. He was also the original writer and producer of the classic science fiction tv show The Outer Limits.

A former composer-lyricist who turned to writing screenplays and TV plays in the late 1950s, Stefano's earliest credits included "The Black Orchid," a 1958 movie drama directed by Martin Ritt and starring Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn; and a "Playhouse 90" production about racial prejudice, "Made in Japan."

After Hitchcock optioned Robert Bloch's 1959 novel "Psycho," Stefano was given a copy of the book the night before meeting with the director to discuss adapting it to the screen. In a 1990 interview for Media Scene Prevue magazine, Stefano said that, with the exception of the ending, he thought that the story was "weak in writing and characterization." The novel, he said, starts with Norman Bates, the mother-dominated motel owner, "and focuses on him too much. I was sure that no audience was going to like Norman enough to stay with him throughout an entire movie."

But as he was driving to Paramount for his meeting with Hitchcock, Stefano came up with a solution: begin the screenplay with the character of Marion Crane, who steals $40,000 from her Phoenix employer to begin a new life with her lover but is murdered after stopping at the Bates Motel. "Audiences would be sucked into a character who did something wrong but was really a good person," Stefano said. "They would feel as if they, not Marion, had stolen the $40,000. When she dies, the audience would be the victim." And that's just how it worked, he said. "With so much early emphasis on Marion, no one dreams she'll get killed," he said. "When it happens, people are blown away?. The idea excited Hitch. And I got the job. Killing the leading lady in the first 20 minutes had never been done before.

"Hitch suggested a name actress to play Marion because the bigger the star the more unbelievable it would be that we would kill her." "Psycho," starring Janet Leigh as Marion Crane and Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, was a sensation, shocking audiences when Leigh's character was stabbed to death in the famous shower scene. "I think 'Psycho' bothered people on a level that the horror films that came before and after never even attempted," Stefano told The Times in 1990.

Young readers, already worried about Harry Potter, now face a new threat. Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler, 36) says at least two characters will die in his 13th and final "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book, The End. The fate of the Baudelaire orphans and their nemesis, Count Olaf, will be revealed when 2.5 million copies go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on the appropriately unlucky day of Friday, Oct. 13. The first dozen "Unfortunate" books have sold more than 50 million copies.

Booksellers applaud the timing. Mary McCarthy of Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee hates to see the series end, but says "certainly 13 is the way to go." In a Potter-less year, "this will fill sort of a void," says Becky Anderson, owner of Anderson's Bookshops in Illinois. On Oct. 13, her stores will hold trivia contests with "unfortunate prizes" like moldy cheese and socks with holes. And Barnes & Noble will raffle off 797 autographed copies (one at each of its stores). "The books have a Dickensian charm," says Josalyn Moran, B&N's VP of children's books. Readers' lives "are a piece of cake compared to the poor orphans."

On Sept. 5, HarperCollins is releasing The Beatrice Letters, a related book with clues to how the "Un-fortunate" series will end. Paramount/Nickelodeon has the rights to more movies. As for The End, the book's editor, Susan Rich, promises that it delivers an "unhappily ever after" finish.

My publisher believed there was value in separating my "day job" from this new venture. The thinking probably was that the kind of journalism I'm involved in at the paper I write for is in some ways up-market and does not reach a mass audience. This could have been a barrier to some readers, who may have felt that the book would be in a similar vein to that, whereas it was very pointedly meant to have a wider appeal.

You should be able to know that when you're reading Jonathan Freedland it is thorough, accurate journalism and when you're reading Sam Bourne he's having a bit of fun. I think also that it was liberating to me, in a way: readers tend to hold columnists to this position or that position and I think if I had that in the back of my mind it could be a constraint. This way it would free me up to have a whole new perspective.

The word-trend group Global Language Monitor, in its annual survey of words from television that had an impact on the language, also cited the words "Katrina," referring to continuing stories about the hurricane's destruction; "Katie," a reference to Katie Couric's move into the nightly news anchor role at CBS News; and "Dr. McDreamy," a nod to a character on the breakout hit "Grey's Anatomy." The doctor is played by Patrick Dempsey and follows in a long line of television "dreamboat" physicians. The survey was released to coincide with Sunday night night's presentation of the Emmy Awards, American television's highest honors.

Global Language Monitor defined "truthiness" as used by Colbert as meaning "truth unencumbered by the facts." "Wikiality," derived from the user-compiled Wikipedia information Web site, was defined as "reality as determined by majority vote," as when astronomers voted Pluto off their list of planets last week.

Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, said, "Some of these buzzwords will quickly pass while others will be embedded in the language for years to come. Global Language Monitor analyzes trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture.

The Wall Street Journal Online: What is country noir?

Daniel Woodrell: It's a noir story set in rural America rather than an urban area. It's a term that I made up largely to combat the mystery label that had gotten slapped on me. I wanted a counter label. Then I realized I'd painted myself into another corner.

*****

WSJ.com: Unlike other current noir writers, there are very few literary references in your books. If your characters read, we don't know it. Does your work attract much attention where you live?

Mr. Woodrell: It hasn't until now. There are people who know but it's not like I walk around and everybody knows who I am. I was born here and moved away. I didn't think I'd ever want to live here, but I came back and find myself staying. There are 11,000 in the town now. I know people who have until recently lived with dirt floors. There are people who live way back off the grid, without electricity. Not a whole lot, but quite a few. That's a choice for a lot of them. There might be a religious element in their isolation, at least with some of them.

AOL, which said GameDaily is among the most-visited sites for information on video games, is trying to boost visits to its ad-supported Web sites to offset expected revenue declines from a recent decision to drop subscription fees for many high-speed Internet users.

"Video game sites have become a valuable resource for advertisers wishing to reach the young male audience, and GameDaily is a brand that resonates with these highly sought-after consumers," said Ralph Rivera, vice president and general manager of AOL Games.

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AOL plans to add its existing AOL Games articles and features to GameDaily, while integrating the new material with AOL's other games sites, including Games.com, which the company launched in May after buying the Web address for an undisclosed sum.

The new CBS Evening News With Katie Couric will be simulcast live on the Internet every evening, starting with its premiere Sept. 5. The move, announced this morning, makes CBS News the first of the network newscasts to use the Internet for simultaneous transmission of the news.

CBS, with the oldest viewership of all the networks, and with the lowest-rated evening news, hopes Couric will help lower the demographic; moving the news to the Internet would likely help overall. CBS News President Sean McManus, in a statement, called it "a groundbreaking development in making the program available to the largest possible audience." The simultaneous news streaming is one fruit borne out of the agreement that CBS hammered out with its affiliates in June to share the revenue from distributing content on digital platforms. CBS declines to give details on the deal's terms, but stations will receive a cut of the revenue from such ad-supported streaming endeavors, including incentives for driving traffic to CBS' Website.

For now, the affiliates will not be able to stream the Evening News themselves but rather link to CBS' main site, where the news will run.